What Types of Batteries are Used in Solar Electric Systems?

There are parameters you can use to determine your solar battery choices, such as the duration of the solar battery or its capacity. 

However, in this article we will discuss what type of batteries are used in the solar electric system. You can buy the best 12v Solar Chargers from here. 

Here are the following battery types that are used in a solar electric system.

Lead Acid 

The regular vehicle batteries whose electrodes are metallic lead oxides, which alter their composition between charging and uncharging. The diluted sulfuric acid is used as an electrolyte in this battery type.   

The modern AGM battery development makes it one of the strongest batteries for solar electric systems, having a significant effect on lead-acid batteries. 

Industrial batteries will last with good maintenance for up to 20 years, and even traditional comprehensive batteries such as for golf vehicles will last 3-5 years.

Intermediate batteries including the S460 and other Surrette batteries are expected to be 7-12 years long.

Lithium Battery

Lithium batteries have superiority over traditional and regular batteries. Lithium does not have a deficit cycling and has a major benefit over the lead batteries.

Basically, batteries can not be charged absolutely the following day they are discharged.

This is a very important issue for batteries with lead acid which may cause severe plate corrosion if this is cycled regularly.

The batteries of LiFePO4 do not have to be charged on a daily basis. Currently, a small partial charge instead of a full charge will increase average life expectancy marginally.

For the development of solar electric systems, efficiency is a very important factor. The round-thru efficiency of the average lead-acid battery is approximately 80 percent (from full to dead and back to full).

It might be much worse for other chemistries. Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries provide up to 95-98 percent energy output during their trip.

In systems that lose solar power during winter, this alone is a substantial increase, and fuel efficiencies from generator charging may be important.

Flow

Flow batteries are the new inventory in the batteries for the solar electric system. They are classified as flow batteries because there is a zinc-bromide water-based solution flowing inside.

Currently, only a few companies are manufacturing residential flow batteries, of which Redflow is the most prominent, a flow battery company based in Australia which manufactures batteries for Thailand (formerly North America).

The ZCell battery is the market’s smallest flow battery.

One of the main advantages of flow batteries compared to lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries is that the discharge range is 100 percent. This allows the battery to be discharged completely in a cycle without adverse consequences on the battery’s life span.

In contrast, 60 percent of the batteries with a lead-acid discharge depth and 80-90 per cent of the batteries with a lithium-ion discharge depth is usable.

Flow batteries have a downside in their life cycle in contrast with other higher-end lithium-ions, with an average life cycle of 4,000 cycles at a 100% depth of discharge that is smaller than 5000-6,000 cycles of high-quality lithium-ions at a depth of 80% of the discharge.

Sodium Nickel Chloride batteries

The battery production of sodium nickel chloride is the only battery type with a range of essential advantages over lithium-ion.

These batteries are versatile and capable of working in a wide range of environmental temperatures ranging from –20 C to +60 C, compared to around 0 C to +40 C for many lithium-ion batteries.

Moreover, the batteries are fully recyclable and use no toxic or harmful chemical solution in them. The manufacturing process of the battery makes it protected from catching fire accidentally. 

However, the disadvantage of these batteries lies in their cost as they are quite expensive. And their expected life cycle of 3500 at 80% discharge depth as compared to lithium-ion batteries which have over 4000 cycles.

Sodium Nickel Chloride batteries will cost you around $20000 which all in one unit installed, now with that cost, you can imagine how much this battery is going to dig into your pocket. 

Packing It Up:

Having said that, you should note that these are not the only batteries that are used in the solar electric system. We have mentioned the types that are most common and popular among all.

Thus, it totally depends on your choice which batter you would want to consider. Each one of them has a unique advantage and also a few drawbacks.